Evaluation of video self‐modeling to teach firearm safety skills

Five kids with developmental delays watched short videos of themselves doing the right moves when they saw a gun.

The clips showed each child stopping, not touching, leaving the area, and telling an adult.

After the videos alone, testers put a real (disabled) gun in the playroom to see if the kids used the safety steps.

If video self-modeling (VSM) did not work, the team added one quick in-situ training (IST) session right there in the room.

Three children followed all four safety steps after only watching their own video.

Two children still reached for the gun; one quick IST booster taught both to walk away and report.

In the end every child performed the safety chain correctly and still did it two weeks later.

Yakubova et al. (2022) also used video modeling and got perfect math scores for one autistic preschooler. Their study shows video alone can work for academic skills; Miltenberger shows it can also work for life-or-death safety, though sometimes you need a live follow-up.

Bermúdez et al. (2020) blended behavioral skills training (BST) with short videos to teach emotion skills. Like Miltenberger, they found video plus BST works, but Bermúdez used adult, peer, or superhero clips instead of self-video and still saw fast gains.

Wan et al. (2023) looks like a contradiction: they say adding interactive games to BST gives bigger gains than BST alone. Miltenberger found VSM alone was enough for most kids. The gap is about dosage and content: Wan taught broad social-cognitive skills in a busy classroom, while Miltenberger taught a tight four-step safety chain. Games may help when the skill is complex; self-modeling may be enough when the steps are clear.

If you teach safety to young clients with developmental delays, start with a 2-minute self-model video. It is cheap, fast, and worked for a large share of this sample.

Keep a BST booster ready: one in-situ rehearsal brought the last kids to a large share performance. Film the child on your phone, edit out errors, show it twice, then probe in the natural setting. You may save a life before lunch.